Malnourished Rage
by Lucas Curavic
Summary: After years and years of putting up with everybody's disrespect and anger-ridden comments, and all the while still trying to please the people of Konoha, Naruto has finally had enough. His old dreams have vanished and have been replaced by dreams and visions of torture and vengence. How will he go about his goal, and how far will he be willing to go to achieve it?
1. Chapter 1

Naruto woke up in cold sweat and with raged breath for what felt like the seventh time that night and wondered what it may have been about. He knew he was the Jinchuuriki of the Biju known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Kyuubi but what it had been doing inside of him for the past twelve years he had no idea.

Nevertheless he sat up and shook himself from his thought-ridden stupor and put his feet on the cold floor, the floor of his apartment. He had been living in that apartment his entire life, ever since the Hokage had bestowed it unto him. Although he tried to keep it in the best condition possible, it was always hard to achieve since the villagers went out of their way just to make his life a living hell, believing that he was the devil, the demon itself. Ever since the villagers and even some of the ninja of Konoha had figured out that he was the Jinchuuriki of the Fox they had hated him with a passion.

Even though in his state of profound depression he still found the energy to get out of his bed and put some water on to boil, to cook up a cup of his favorite ramen, Miso. He sat down and proceeded to dig in to his favorite ramen cup flavor and realization dawned on him as he remembered, today was his birthday.

He always hated his birthday, as the villagers always took it upon themselves to try and end the pariah's life to ensure that the demon had no chance whatsoever of escaping at any point in time, leaving the blond to constantly run away in fear from the villagers and always stay alert and on his toes, as was the duty of a ninja, Naruto was just pushed into the habit a little bit earlier than everyone else.

The twelve-year-old Demon Container had for twelve years on the same day every year been running from multiple people, civilian and ninja alike. Years of hiding and running constantly had not only led to him not having to train because of his disposition with the people of Konoha, and also for his reflexes to be sharper than any other Genin his age, for sometimes the ninja and civilian populace would take positions and hiding places above rooftops and around corners, his brain had to have the ability to keep up with his eyes and move accordingly to what he saw, years upon years of constantly sharpening his reflexes and eyesight. He was the sharpest tool in the shed physically, but when it came to mental capacity, he was lacking…severely. After spending so long acting on reflex alone his brain needed not to plan or orchestrate any sophisticated movements other than where to go next and how.

Naruto could hear the fireworks outside, he saw the flurry of colors outside his window and he could hear the whistle of the containers of explosives as they flew through the sky as the explosions that came after. Today on his day of birth was also the day that the Kyuubi, the monster that ravaged Konoha had finally been sealed into the young baby, but the populace thought it had just been killed, even though they though that Naruto was the demon. Today was the day that the Kyuubi had disappeared from the face of the earth and never to appear again. But little did the hidden village of Konoha know, the Kyuubi had other plans.

Despite his train of thought, he mulled about his rituals, waking up at 7:00 had been his forte for the duration of the year, as he had nothing better to do than get up go out early in the morning or late at night to train and sharpen his reflexes, so that the other villages and many other ninja would not be awake.

Every day he got up to practice his chakra molding, his control of the spiritual essence, and the more physical aspect of practical applications such as running from an enemy that proved to be too strong. He would often go out and find an animal, the biggest and scariest animal that he could find, so that he could provoke it and make it angry, and then continue to run for his life. Naruto figured that if he couldn't get better by running on his own, then he would need a motivator, an incentive.

His life worked out to be pretty good for this purpose.

Until one day he had picked an opponent too big, too large and too powerful. It was the first day that he actually found himself outmatched against nature. This day was going about its course in the infamous Training Ground 44, or more commonly known as, The Forest of Death. Not knowing the full extent of the creatures that reside within the forest, he blindly entered with a desire to be challenged. What he found was astounding…nothing. He had found nothing for the first half an hour of his venture into the forest. Until he noticed something, something any normal civilian wouldn't have noticed. The slight rustle of twigs and the sound of leaves being crushed in the distance, up high in the trees, and far behind distant trees. The Demon Container knew that this was not what he thought it was, no. It was not a ninja, due to the fact that a ninja would not be clumsy enough to make such a mistake as to give away their position. Which left only one viable option; this was an animal.

He was being hunted.

What he felt at this moment was nothing more than exhilaration as the creature circled him incessantly, waiting for Naruto to make his move, and to strike. But Naruto stayed put, waiting for his captor to finally pounce on him and attempt to take him down. Though while he was thinking and waiting, the animal had made its move, catching Naruto by surprise.

The thing was huge, he didn't even know what it was, where it came from or what is was called. It was huge in size, maybe thirty-five feet long, much longer than he. It had scales as large as his head and its eyes were on the top of its head, those giant yellow eyes that peered at him with such intensity. At the end of the creature's head there were two black holes that were shown to be nostrils, and under them, the creature's mouth. A giant gaping mouth with humungous fangs that curved back towards its mouth. Huge scales lined its entire body along with a eerie hiss-like noise accompanying the beast wherever it went.

The thing was huge, and provided much more of a challenge than he had bargained for. He ran away as soon as he saw the creature pounce and aim for the kill. Although the creature was much faster than Naruto was, the demon contained still felt he had a chance. He jumped over the thing to try and confuse it, but Naruto did not know much about this thing, if anything, and was very naïve in his approach. The animal sailed right under his body, but right after, brought its tail to catch up with it, hitting Naruto right in the head and throwing himself right against a tree. Naruto felt winded, and felt that it was too late. He saw the snake peer at him from its position across the forest floor from him, and slowly moved across to where he was.

Naruto thought that this was the end when he saw the snake coil up, until he had an idea. An idea that forced him to plan, and quickly.

The millisecond before the animal hit him he jumped up to avoid the animal and up into the air, only narrowly missing the creature's gaping mouth. After realizing that Naruto was no longer where he wanted him to be, the thing could do nothing to stop himself from flying through the air as it crashed through the tree in front of it, and behind where Naruto used to be. Naruto was sailing through the air, taking a moment to note that this was the highest he ever jumped in this entire life. He had only just realized that the snake had crashed through the tree when he had landed, and had again, taken a moment to appreciate the mess he had caused.

He was broken from his daydreaming when he heard the hiss of the creature in front of him. Immediately he readied, entering his own battle stance and preparing himself for whatever was to come. He was confident in his ability until he heard multiple hisses from where the thing had flown off into the distance and had turned a shade lighter. He had realized that if he did not possess the ability to kill one, he would surely not have enough ability to kill many. He wondered to himself, _"maybe if I can distract one of them with a clone I can sneak around an"-_

His thinking was cut short by a loud crash coming from behind him, and his vision blurring until he hit a tree head on. Not having been knocked out just yet, he looked up and turned around, and although extremely blurry and dizzy, could still make out three large fuzzy figures that all looked alike to the one he had outsmarted before. But now there were more of them, and he was in no condition to run or fight whatsoever. Despite having almost no chance of survival, he ran anyway. Stumbling over little twigs and tree roots on the way due to his concussed condition. He ran for his life, he would run until his legs gave out from under him.

He ran, and ran, and ran, until the group of hostiles finally caught up with him and decided to collaboratively end his life.

The three beasts jumped up into the air and descended onto his position when Naruto looked up all he could see was scales and big yellow eyes that promised death. He sat down and closed his eyes waiting for his demise and felt his body give a giant quiver throughout his muscles and his veins. Naruto could feel the power pumping through his body as this moment, but alas, it was only a moment. When he opened his eyes and looked up again the three foes that were no more than a half-second ago above him were on the ground many feet away from him, writhing in pain and screeching so much that it hurt the demon container's ears. He backed away and waited for the loud and intrusive noises to stop. When they did, he walked towards them and inspected the bodies of the creatures he had seemingly killed involuntarily. They seemed to have been burned to a very high degree, and they still looked to be degrading, as if being eaten by whatever his body had done. He looked closer unto the bodies and noticed the faint red glow of something that was still eating the bodies of whatever he had just killed.

Awestruck, he stood up and calmly turned around, only for smoke and the crackling of fire to hit him right in the senses and he looked around in panic only to notice that whatever had burned the creatures had also burned the trees around him, leading to a giant forest fire that was to quickly spread to other parts of the forest. He noticed the danger of the situation and quickly ran out of the fire's radius as fast as he could, running again for his life. There was nothing he could do to stop this fire, he knew not of any water type jutsu, and he didn't know anyone that did, maybe someone at the academy, but probably not. He wasn't even a Chuunin what would they do to help him, nothing probably.

The only thing he could do was run away from this fire and let it to burn itself out. He would calmly run back to town and enter his own room calmly just as if nothing had happened and pretend to know nothing of the fire, or what had happened.

That was exactly what he did. He left training ground 44 and went back towards his apartment. Nobody questioned him, and nobody wondered if he had committed this crime. The officials of the council just put it down to a neighbor-hidden village, or bandits.

What he was interested by was the action of the Fox in the forest, the Biju sealed in him. Why had it released so much chakra? Was it to keep him alive? Naruto had no clue whatsoever but he figured that if it happens more often he wouldn't mind. The Fox had saved his life and he wouldn't bat an eye if it did it again.

He walked back up to his apartment, passing two other genins on the way, Sasuke and Sakura, the only two ninjas his age that he had ever known that had shown him any respect whatsoever. Sakura, the one who was nice to everyone, and Sasuke, the only one his age who knew what it was truly like to have no family and no friends. Sasuke and Naruto had a peculiar relationship. Naruto and Sasuke had never really liked each other, but only trained with each other and talked to each other because of their position in life. They had little in common, but what they did have in common more than made up for whatever they didn't, and that was that they didn't have any family or friends, only each other. They didn't talk to each other when they walk past one another, and they didn't visit each other's houses, they didn't find or see the need in any of those actions.

They trained together and they put up with everyone else together.

It was not so much as friendship, but more like a mutual understanding, that they both needed each other to complete their goals in life, Sasuke wishes to seek revenge on his brother, and Naruto wished for everyone to respect him as the greatest ninja ever to exist.

Naruto walked Sasuke with just a brief nod and nothing to Sakura as her silence indicated exactly her intentions. Not to talk to him. Sakura had always been cautious in Naruto's presence, ever since he told her off for talking too much that one time. Sakura was the type to hold grudges, and also the one to blame her problems on everyone else. What she didn't realize is that the reason Naruto had yelled at her was because she felt the need to incessantly talk about how much her family annoys her, and about how boring staying with the same group of friends can be. Naruto took offence to this and promptly told her to respect what she had and not to take these things for granted. Because Naruto had never grown up with a family or friends, but Sakura didn't know that.

He passed the two and said nothing to either of them. He passed them and continued to his apartment with nothing to say for the blood that stained his clothes, nothing to say for the muddy patches on his outfit and the cuts in his vibrant orange shirt, and the leaves in his hair. It looked as if he had stayed the night outside and didn't bathe.

He fell onto his bed and fell asleep instantly, never feeling more alive.

Ever since the event in the forest, he had felt powerful. Like there was something within him that had been sleeping for twelve years that had finally awaken.

Within seconds of being asleep, he saw nothing of his dream but giant glowing red eyes, radiating evil red chakra. The eyes seemed to close and the room he was in rumbled with deep, demonic laughter.

"_**hahahahaha, welcome child, to the life of a demon".**_


	2. Chapter 2

Malnourished Rage: Chapter 2

Naruto, ever since yesterday, had felt rejuvenated. The Demon Container had never felt better on a day such as this. He had remembered the last time he had woken up the day after his birthday to a crowd of ninja and civilian alike trying to infiltrate his apartment in order to finish the job they had failed the day before. The blonde boy had always been careful on his birthday and the day after, he had actually wanted to stay alive to make sure that all the Hidden Villages actually knew he would be the greatest ninja in existence.

He awoke reluctantly from the most fulfilling slumbers ever to have greeted the boy. The blonde boy had never been so unwilling to open his eyes in a long time.

The 12-year-old had thought to himself about the night before when he had fallen asleep, about the giant, looming red eyes that hovered in the black sky of his dull yet exciting dream. What were they? What could they be? Where did they come from? So many questions were rushing through his head at the same time he had trouble focusing on any one of them, or on anything else for that matter. For if he had been able to focus, he would had remembered that this was the day that all the Genin would be assigned their teams and Jounin sensei.

Naruto, again mulling about his daily rituals had only just looked at the time after finishing his breakfast: 10:30.

He had actually been so engrossed in his thoughts that he had forgotten what day it was and also what time. So now, not only was he late for the Academy, he would also be late for team assignments, which meant that he would have to walk into class with all eyes angrily upon him for holding the class up. This would not be a good day. 

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Naruto had been running for what seemed like just short minutes, when he noticed that he had arrived at the academy at only 10:45 after rushing to get all his stuff together and running down the main street as fast as he could. He had actually lost track of time once again as for he found himself lost in his own thoughts, just like this morning. Every single time he would lose himself in his own vast yet unfilled mind, the same questions would appear and they would always lose the Demon Container to confusion. What are those eyes? Where did they come from? Do they belong to something? The 12 year-old boy knew none of the answers, but alas always found himself thinking the same questions.

He had been steady and even in his pace to the academy when something he heard had stopped him right in his tracks, almost frighteningly enough to cause him to trip and fall over mid-run.

He stopped and looked around to try and find the source of what seemed like…Laughter? Yet he could not find anything to indicate that anything was laughing in his midst, ever. No signs of footprints on the road and the chatter of people were also gone. In fact, it seemed as if all ambient noise had disappeared, which is what really make Naruto on edge.

The Demon-Containers hand crawled closer and closer to hid kunai pouch with each second that flew by in which he had still not found the source of the mysterious, somewhat evil laughter.

Naruto had finally had enough when he finally thought to himself _"this is ridiculous I'm just going to keep walking and hope it disappears."_

He had continued walking and the laughter stopped and the blonde had sighed exasperatedly, finally relieved that the mysterious laughter had stopped.

Within seconds he found himself at the academy gates, loud chatter and obnoxious laughter abundant. Oh too true, this was certainly not going to be a good day.

The second he walked into the door, he threw his sight towards the ground as he felt all eyes of the classroom of many and more children and teachers look upon him and the scowls that came along with their faces.

Naruto had just silently walked over to the table where Sasuke was sitting, a vacant seat to his right. A rare occurrence Naruto had mentally noted to himself, since almost every other day upon his entrance he had immediately noticed that just about every single girl in the class was fighting over who would take the seat next to the raven haired boy that wasn't already taken. Naruto was in luck, although he didn't particularly like Sasuke, the avenger would probably be the only one to tolerate Naruto, and Naruto would most likely be the only one who had a shred of respect enough to leave the boy alone, and just sit next to him instead of fawning over him like the girls did, and scowling at him like the boys did.

Sasuke had always looked down upon the blonde haired boy, as he thought almost every Genin his age was beneath him. His superiority complex had gotten to his head and it affected everything he did. Including everything he did in the academy, and how he treated his classmates. Although all of that changed when he walked past Naruto that night he saw him with his clothes torn and battered, twigs in his hair and smelling of foul chakra. Sasuke had grown a sliver of respect for the blonde Jinchuuriki after that night. The raven-haired boy himself didn't know, but his inner-gut feeling told him that this blonde ninja named Naruto was something to be respected. Even if it didn't appear as such, his gut told him otherwise.

Naruto promptly slumped into the seat next to Sasuke on the seat nearest the aisle, which earned him a very small smile, so small that most of the Genin would have been able to see it, and none of them did. Sasuke did very well to hide the fact that he had been smiling, well enough to put on a fake scowl as he did every day, just to keep the ever-growing "Sasuke Fangirl Group" from approaching him and for every single of the girls to ask him on a date, and for him to immediately say no.

A small smile from Sasuke, and sudden silence from the rest of the class from the moment Naruto entered the classroom to the moment he sat down. The blonde ninja had finally stopped worrying about what other Genin would think of him a while ago now, ever since he realized they didn't care much if at all about him. Since he had devoted much of his time that he would normally spend trying to get other peoples' attention, to training. Every morning, before the training grounds would get too occupied, he would sneak out to various training grounds and focus on different subjects of his ninja arsenal. This had led to him being the physically fittest of all the Genin of his year, but severely lacking mental capacity. Naruto had always made up for what he didn't have in book-smarts, by overloading his training in the physical department, and he was well off because of it.

It took several minutes for the silence to not only loose the tense aura that it held, but for it also to die down. For multiple minutes the class, Chuunin instructor Iruka included, had looked at him slack-jawed until the pink-haired girl from their class had gotten up to 'talk' to the boy who had just stolen 'her' seat next to her 'love'.

"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT THE SEAT NEXT TO SASUKE IS MINE!"

Multiple of the girls behind her had agreed in unison, not because of what Sakura had said, but because they all also believed that the seat next to Sasuke was theirs and theirs alone.

"NARUTO! ANSWER ME" The pinkette had once again screamed at the top of her lungs.

If she wasn't so wrapped up in her own pride she would have heard the reply that Naruto had given under his breath.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?"

Only slightly louder this time, Naruto had given his answer in full, looking directly at the pink-haired Kunoichi's face.

"No" Had come from the blonde ninja's soft voice.

Sakura was so taken aback by the reply of the Demon Container that she didn't even know how to react. For years the boy had just done what he was told, or demanded by any member of the class, and had done it without regret or second though. Although it did take some physical…'persuasion' to get the blonde Genin to do what they wanted, he had always complied with their orders, until now.

What had been so different about today that he suddenly stands up for himself? Whatever the reason was, it surely wasn't good enough coming from the blonde to match up to Sakura's expectations. She wouldn't have any of this disobedience coming from Naruto, not today when she so much wanted the seat next to Sasuke, the love of her life.

Not knowing how else to react, the pinkette raised her hand, and cocked it back motioning to hit the boy right in the side of the head. With a poorly execute haymaker, the girl lashed out at Naruto hoping to knock some sense into him, hoping to establish the fact that she should never have to tell him to not take her seat next the Avenger again.

Naruto saw the poor punch coming, he could have avoided it if he tried, but he just couldn't be bothered. All of these years, taking and absorbing hits from Kunoichi and male Genin alike, he had just had enough of caring what they did to him. He just closed his eyes and waited for the impact to knock him off of him chair.

The Demon Container waited for the impact to come…but it never did, all he felt was a rush of wind and a slight slapping noise. Curious, he opened his eyes to see what had just occurred, and what he saw astounded him.

Sasuke had as soon as he heard and seen the punch from the pink-haired Genin aimed at Naruto, had rushed past Naruto and caught the punch in his bare hand, absorbing all of the force without even so much as a flinch or grunt. Sasuke had just saved Naruto from another day of slight concussion, which he was thankful for, but wondered if it was really necessary.

Sasuke had said nothing to the girl who had nothing but pure awe and shock on her face at the time. No words had need be said, the point that Sasuke was trying to illustrate had gotten across to Sakura perfectly fine, as her fist slowly dropped from Sasuke's, and the pinkette had solemnly dropped her head, and trudged toward her seat next to Ino, the other blonde of the classroom.

Nobody had uttered a word that moment of the week, nobody could find anything to say, many of the Genin were just trying to comprehend what had just happened.

The Genius of the class had, just saved the Dobe?

"_No way…" _had been along the lines of what just about every single male Genin had thought in the classroom at the time.

It seemed as if it were an impossible occurrence that the Genius save the Dead-Last, even if it were from such a weak punch from Sakura of all people.

Silence had struck the classroom once more until their teacher and instructor, Iruka Umino had finally found his words among his thoughts and blurted out a poorly spoken "alright, everyone back to seats, team assignments".

Although the sentence had been horribly constructed, the students were in a similar state and had all known exactly what he had meant. After many short minutes of clattering of still slightly confused student moving to their seats after collaborating with their friends to chat, for Naruto had held them all up.

After every Genin of the class was seated, Iruka Had gone about reading his list, and as if rehearsed, perfectly projected the teams for each Genin and their Jounin Sensei. Naruto would have heard them if was actually awake. After the whole incident with Sakura, he noticed Sasuke had saved him from the hit, and mentally thanked him, and although still slightly shocked, laid his head on the table and promptly fell asleep.

Sasuke glanced over at his new teammate, the village Pariah, the Demon Container, and erratic and physically capable blonde ninja to his right, Naruto. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke had actually heard all of the team announcements, and had mentally noted that Naruto and Sakura were both on his team; he knew he would work well with Naruto, as they shared many an aspect in common, but Sakura was a different story. Nevertheless, he would try to make it work, if it didn't work like he had hoped, oh well, the Raven-Haired ninja wouldn't lose anything.

Two seemingly never-ending hours had passed somehow and the village pariah was still fast asleep on his table, which Sasuke personally had no problem with, unlike another Kunoichi of his team.

"_Naruto doesn't deserve to be on a team with Me and Sasuke, we're to good for him, especially since we're going to be lovers some day, Sasuke could beat Naruto in a spar any day of the week and here he is pretending that he doesn't realize just how awesome Sasuke is by falling asleep, who does he think he is?"_

Sakura had never worn a frown so strong on her features before, which Sasuke had noticed and thought to himself _"Hn, her hate for the boy only grows stronger by the minute. If only she could realize his potential. Hn."_

More agonizing minutes had passed and their Jounin Sensei had finally shown up, no more than two and a half hours late. All two of three students' heads turned towards the door as they heard footsteps from the hallway, slow, steady and well-paced footsteps.

Tension in the classroom had only risen when the footsteps got louder and eventually stopped right outside the classroom. Two breaths that had been held by both Sasuke and Sakura had been released as they watched the Jounin walk to the front of the classroom and stare at them with blatant disinterest. The Jounin who had been assigned to their team had unnaturally spiked white hair, a forehead protector that covered his left eye and a facemask that covered the lower half of his face, all in all, leaving only his right eye visible for viewing. Along with all of his facial accessories he wore the standard Jounin uniform and vest.

The Jounin at the front of the class had stared at them, looking each one of them up and down with his lazy right eye, before slowly raising his right arm with one finger extended pointing towards the ceiling before muttering "roof…5 minutes".

Sasuke had no problem understanding what the Jounin had meant by that statement and had told Sakura to run up to the roof of the building they were in at the moment, noticing that she didn't actually understand what their Sensei had intended by the simple 'roof, 5 minutes' statement.

As Sakura left the room, the raven-haired ninja had slowly walked over to Naruto's table, which he was still sleeping on, and gently bumped him on the shoulder to wake him up from his slumber.

Following the poke on the shoulder Sasuke had been slightly annoyed at the fact that the now quiet blonde STILL didn't wake up. Sasuke had no time for his antics and simply said Naruto's name in to the boy's ear. Not loud, but sternly enough to wake someone from any sleep. Naruto had stirred from his sleep slightly; his eyes open, but rolled back into the back of his head, as if possessed by something. The blonde Genin swayed to one side before snapping back to vertical position and mumbling,

"Where is everyone?"

Sasuke replied with "you've been asleep for at least 2 hours dobe, everyone has left and we have yet to meet our Sensei on the roof. Come on."

With that, the two Ninja raced up the stairs to reach the end of their short journey only to find that Sakura had only just arrived at the roof mere seconds before they did, her intensive huffing and puffing had illustrated just that. Naruto and Sasuke had walked out of the door to the roof without so much as breathing heavy or breaking a sweat, much the opposite of Sakura, their pink-headed teammate.

The two young boys took their seat next to the pinkette and looked promptly at their Jounin Sensei, who was still looking at the sight that had befallen him; Beautiful green trees, birds flying through the sky, chirping and calling as they went, the buzz of movement and chatter of the civilians on the streets below, it all painted a quite beautiful picture, a picture to behold.

After looking over the hand railing for a few minutes, he turned and faced his three students, noticing that the blonde had finally awaken and was now observantly staring at him, as if he expected the White-headed man to start talking.

The older man sighed, fatigue evident in his actions and his voice, for he had just come back from a rather large mission, a mission that required an extended leave from the village. A week it had taken to finally get back to assassinate a missing nin from Sound Country, and he was tired, he didn't want to have to do this, but he figured the quicker he did it, the quicker he could get it over and done with.

Finally mustering his energy to construct a proper sentence, he came out with

"Yo! My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I'm your Jounin Sensei. You can introduce yourself to me by stating your likes, dislikes, and goals for your ninja career. You in the pink, go."


End file.
